The M4A3E8 Sherman is a variant of the M4 Sherman. The M4 Sherman, officially the Medium Tank, M4, was the primary battle used by the United States and the other Allies in World War II, and proved to be a reliable and highly mobile workhorse. Nonetheless, they were signifigantly weaker than Heavy tanks such as the Tiger I, accurately portrayed in the movie.
In the film Fury, the main tank, Fury, is an M4A3E8 Sherman, with "FURY" painted on the barrel of the main cannon.
Description
In spite of being outweighed by the German tanks later in the war, the Sherman still proved more effective overall than the Panther according to a US Army Ballistic Research Lab study. Thousands were distributed to the Allies, including the British Commonwealth and the Soviet Union, in the lend-lease program. The M4 was the second most produced tank of the World War II era, after the Soviet T-34, and its role in its parent nation's victory was comparable to that of the T-34. The M4A3E8 variant was upgraded with widetrack Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension (HVSS) and fitted with the 76mm High Velocity cannon.
Interestingly, the M4A3E8 version was sometimes referred to as the "easy 8" by its crew and certain officers, similar to the "hetzer" nickname for the German Jagdpanzer 38(t).